From 20,000 feet, North Carolina looks as bad as it can get.

The NBA pulling its All-Star Game from Charlotte is one of those stories that make North Carolina look like a bigoted, back-woods state. This morning, millions of people around the country are hearing it on ESPN and seeing the 72-point headlines, and drawing yet another conclusion that a leader of industry, entertainment and corporate business is, at its core, just part of the racist South.

To them House Bill 2 is an old story, a tagline for Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon. Most people don’t even know what the law means – just something about the LBGT community – whatever that is – making public bathrooms dangerous for our kids. They’ve stopped reading the details months ago. All they know is that it’s bad enough that Bruce Springsteen cancelled his concert in Greensboro, the NBA is pulling out and other states are banning THEIR corporate business from meeting in North Carolina.

The NBA yanking the all-star weekend is the largest common denominator to date. Who hasn’t heard of Michael Jordan? Well, his team WAS hosting the all-star game, and now it’s not because of some sex law that started in Charlotte and passed in Raleigh. The state is amok with gays, lesbians and in-betweens scaring a lot of innocent children; that’s all the general public knows.

The NCAA has basketball tournament games scheduled here for the next two years. Are they going to follow the NBA? Of course they are. Hell, the NCAA banned any events from SOUTH Carolina because the Confederate flag was still hanging at the state house. That’s all you needed to know to apply a label. You think the next ACC football championship game is staying in Charlotte? It’s toast.

The economic impact of North Carolina losing millions on these events…No one cares about that from 20,000 feet. From the world’s vantage point, it’s lost reputation over lost revenue that’s killing North Carolina. And it’s a lot harder to get back the former than the latter.

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